Australia 13–12 Great Britain — Final, 1977 Rugby League World Cup
25 Jun 1977 · Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, Australia · Attendance: 24,457
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
Final, 1977 Rugby League World Cup: Australia 13–12 Great Britain, at Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, Australia on 25 Jun 1977.
Scorers
| Australia | Tries: McMahon; Gartner; Kolc Goals: Cronin (2/4) |
| Great Britain | Tries: Pitchford; Gill Goals: Fairbairn (3/3) |
Teams
| Australia | Great Britain | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Graham Eadie | Fullback | George Fairbairn | 1 |
| 2 | Allan McMahon | Wing | Stuart Wright | 2 |
| 3 | Michael Cronin | Centre | John Holmes | 3 |
| 4 | Russell Gartner | Centre | Les Dyl | 4 |
| 5 | Mark Harris | Wing | Bill Francis | 5 |
| 6 | John Peard | Stand off/Five eighth | Roger Millward (c) | 6 |
| 7 | John Kolc | Scrum half/Half back | Steve Nash | 7 |
| 8 | Greg Veivers | Prop forward | Jimmy Thompson | 8 |
| 9 | Nick Geiger | Hooker | Keith Elwell | 9 |
| 10 | Terry Randall | Prop forward | Steve Pitchford | 10 |
| 11 | Arthur Beetson (c) | Second row | Len Casey | 11 |
| 12 | Ray Higgs | Second row | Eddie Bowman | 12 |
| 13 | Greg Pierce | Loose forward/Lock forward | Phil Hogan | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 18 | Denis Fitzgerald | Ken Gill | 14 | |
| Peter Smith | 15 | |||
| Terry Fearnley | Coach | David Watkins | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Billy Thompson (England) |
| Player of the match | Greg Pierce (Australia) |
Match report
Australia and Great Britain met in a rematch of a fiercely contested World Cup campaign, hosted at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The match swung back and forth: Allan McMahon's early try was answered by Steve Pitchford for Great Britain, before Russell Gartner's opportunist 60-metre try, capitalising on a loose ball, and a Michael Cronin penalty put Australia 10-7 ahead at half-time despite George Fairbairn's boot keeping the tourists close.
In the second half, with Great Britain pressing (including a Stuart Wright effort that Wikipedia's account describes as controversially disallowed, single-sourced), Australia's win was sealed by halfback John Kolc, who scored in the corner in what turned out to be his only international appearance. Replacement Ken Gill's late try, converted by Fairbairn, brought Great Britain within a point, but Australia held on 13-12 to be crowned world champions — captained by prop legend Arthur Beetson and coached by Terry Fearnley. Greg Pierce was named player of the match.
Previous World Cup meetings
- 1954 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): Australia 13–28 Great Britain
- 1957 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): Australia 31–6 Great Britain
- 1960 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): Great Britain 10–3 Australia
- 1968 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): Australia 25–10 Great Britain
- 1970 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): Great Britain 11–4 Australia
- 1970 Rugby League World Cup (Final): Australia 12–7 Great Britain
- 1972 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): Great Britain 27–21 Australia
- 1972 Rugby League World Cup (Final): Great Britain 10–10 Australia
- 1977 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): Australia 19–5 Great Britain
- 1985–1988 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): Great Britain 15–24 Australia
- 1985–1988 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): Australia 12–26 Great Britain
- 1989–1992 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): Great Britain 0–14 Australia
- 1989–1992 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): Australia 16–10 Great Britain
- 1989–1992 Rugby League World Cup (Final): Australia 10–6 Great Britain